All roads lead to De Rust
… and other true stories
The Karoo dorpie of De Rust was a blip on my radar – a stopover town en route to Cape Town, a place to pause to visit the Meiringspoort waterfall, and not much more.
That was until we made a snap decision to escape the busyness of the coast during the festive season and run for the hills to meet up with special friends who fell in love with De Rust. What on earth would attract them to such a place, I wondered.
Over seven easy days, I began to understand. This little town (that’s what “dorpie” means) is the centre of its own world: yes, all roads lead to De Rust. It’s more than a place to rest (it was a resting place for travellers in the 1900s and that’s where the name comes from). It’s more than a farming town, too: it’s home to a cosmopolitan community of creative people who prefer to live away from the rat race.
You could write a book about all the things to do, but I will give you only my personal picks of where to venture from this big heart of the Klein (Little) Karoo.
- Visit the hotel emerging from the mists of time
Let’s start at the centre of the town, at Hotel De Rust, on the main road, Schoeman Street. The Shamley family hotel opened in 1953, but closed in the 1990s and stayed that way for 30 years. Dining tables remained set and beds made, apparently waiting for the next guests.
The owner then was Roy Shamley. He never married, and his deep love affair was with art. His hotel and filling station was a gathering place and the adjoining bottle store was also a gallery for his art collection. But in the early 1990s – so the story goes – someone stole a piece of art from the hotel. So Roy closed the doors. He continued living there until he passed away in the chair in his filling station office in September 2021.
Roy’s sister, Nolene Orton, passed on custodianship to Werner and Bernadette Alberts; Bernadette is Roy’s niece. They are slowly reopening the doors.
First, they found treasures everywhere, including original artwork by Frans Claerhout at the back of the beer store, a large Aga stove and a storeroom of coal. Werner says they are using some of these items, such as the original signage and old No 7 paraffin heater, in their revamp. “We want to keep it authentic, not specifically to 1953, but true to what the hotel already has, which is décor ranging from the ’50s to the ’70s,” Werner says.
In June 2022, Werner and Bernadette reopened the bar and named it, aptly, About Time. “It was about time the bar opened,” Werner says. “It’s also a time capsule covering so many years. And Uncle Roy had a passion for timepieces, some of which we’ve incorporated in the bar.” About Time is open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 4 to 10pm.
The Alberts are working out what to do with the hotel rooms. As Werner puts it, whatever the hotel offers will have to be both cost effective and complementary to very good accommodation offerings close by. Each room will, of course, have an original TV, videos and video machine.
Meanwhile, the Alberts are creating events that draw people to the hotel. Uncle Roy was a collector of vintage movie posters and movies on VHS and Betamax – so, there are vintage movie nights. They hold other regular events, such as a “braaibroodjie” (barbeque bread) competition. Next up will be the reopening of the dining room and kitchen and the relaunching of one of the bars as a private event venue.
Watch this space!
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That’s not all
From the hotel, wander along the main road. We stopped at Pluim for lunch. It has fabulous vegan burgers and a gourmet brinjal sandwich, which you can feast on among great art. Up and down the street, find Café De Rust (highly rated by locals), the Grumpy Goat (a bar), Mengelmoeskardoes (an all-sorts vintage shop with old-time sweeties), the Rusty Nail (another bar) and Karoo Rouge (stockists of all kinds of “veldskoen”). There’s more than what I’ve listed, of course.
Do try to lay your hands on produce from Numbi Valley. This is an off-grid, bountiful permaculture farm, where the lovely owners live in a cob house they built themselves. Everything is organic, naturally, and your head spins at the variety. The owners sell at the monthly “mark” (market) in town. You can also follow the link and contact them directly.
And take a turn for an olive oil tasting at the award-winning De Rustica on the Oudemuragie Road. A sweet person, like Megan, will teach you how to warm the oil in your hands, swirl it in your mouth, and tell the difference between virgin and extra virgin olive oil.
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Cross the Swartberg
De Rust is the gateway to and from the Groot (Great) Karoo. You have to cross the Swartberg, the highest mountain range in the Western Cape, to get to the Groot Karoo. There are two ways to do it, and I recommend both. You can gently wind through Meiringspoort, a 25km gorge, to the other side. It has some of the best-kept picnic spots in South Africa, an excellent tar road, stunning sandstone cliffs, crystal-clear mountain streams and a wealth of endemic vegetation.
The crazier way is to take the dirt road close to Oudtshoorn and go over the top, through the 23.8km Swartberg Pass. Thomas Bain built the road in the 1880s, and today it’s a decent gravel road with much of the original stonework intact.
Of course, you will need refreshments before and after you cross the pass. The hotel in the village of Klaarstroom (“clear stream”) is a gem, dating from 1874. Kobus se Gat, with off-grid eating and accommodation, has an earthy appeal. I wondered about its name. An internet search enlightened me: “From where the name Kobus se Gat? There was a braai… and the rest is history…” Ahem.
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Linger at the trendier big brother
On the Groot Karoo side of the Swartberg, you’ll want to head for the town of Prince Albert. This is the snobbier, trendier, pricier big brother to De Rust, someone whispered. But it, too, is charming, with traditional Karoo architecture and canals of “leiwater” from the Swartberg lining the streets. There’s an abundance of eateries and a fab cheese outlet.
We whiled away a most pleasant few hours in the shade of a pepper tree at a restaurant and accommodation establishment called the Yellow House. I delighted in the nicest restroom I’ve ever seen. And I devoured a pizza with an almond pesto base – heavenly. The owners look for every which way to use almonds. This is, after all, an almond and citrus farm – and right in the middle of the orchard, you stumble on a blue, blue pool.
Intriguingly, little packets of water hung in the tree above our table. These are to deter flies – apparently, their multi-faceted eyes can’t bear the reflection. It seems to work. And when a lone fly gets through, the pizza chef cocks his salt gun and blasts it to smithereens. True story.
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Appreciate big hats (and siestas)
Temperatures this summer reached 46 degrees Celsius. The crackling dry air becomes thick and heavy, and you dare not venture out between 11am and 3pm (ish). You read a book, play cards, enjoy the “geselligheid” (warm conversations) and have a nap in the shade. When you step out, you slather yourself in sunscreen and wear the biggest hat you can find.
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Drink wine
You might want to sip chilled wine during your siesta. And there is great wine here. That’s because De Rust is on the Klein Karoo Wine Route, the furthest east of South Africa’s wine regions.
We spent the best part of a hot day in Calitzdorp, a dorpie on the other side of Oudtshoorn. At De Krans, lunch is served under the vines; I love all the De Krans white wines. Boplaas has superior brandy and whisky, among other things, but my favourite offering is the Stoepsit sauvignon blanc. Be warned: you won’t want to leave the comfy sofas and coolness of the misting system.
The little wine shop in De Rust, known as the “pink elephant”, stocks a range of Klein Karoo wines, as well as olive products and cheese.
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Take a walk
You’d think that such a hot, dry area would be fairly barren. You’d be wrong. De Rust is part of the succulent Karoo biome, known for its richness in small succulent shrubs, many of which are rare. It also falls into both the Cape thicket and fynbos biomes, and the Swartberg is part of the Cape Floral Kingdom World Heritage Site. You will marvel at mountains covered in aloe ferox (imagine what it looks like in winter) and spekboom (Portulacaria afra) forests – yes, forests!
You will be speechless at the sight of wild bees, their hives dripping with honey, in dry river beds complete with canyons. You will notice that you are surrounded by mountains, which, as my friend puts it, make you feel grounded and safe.
And when the day is done, you will kick back to watch the colours of sunset stretch across an endless sky that you’ll soon realize is unmarred by light pollution. Spot Jupiter and Mars, trace constellations and follow space stations. Feel your special place in something that is bigger than we can ever imagine.
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